CHERISHED (By the Alpha Billionaire #3) Read online

  Moments later, her cherry lips were parted into an ‘O’ as her face winced. “Oh, my God, oh, Sawyer, yes…”

  She wriggled and writhed on my cock, as I unloaded myself. And when we were finished, she collapsed in a heap on top of me.

  “You don’t know how much I missed that,” she breathed.

  Before I had a chance to tell her I felt the same, she climbed off of me and pranced away to the bathroom. I couldn’t help but wonder if she missed me…or if she missed the sex.

  THREE

  Maisie

  I crawled back in bed with him, breathing in his earthy, musky scent. I could’ve devoured him from head to toe.

  I nestled into the crook of his shoulder, tracing my hand across his bare chest. “So, Sawyer, what made you come back?”

  “You.” He didn’t miss a beat.

  “Miss the sex that bad, did you?” I laughed.

  The quiet that consumed the space between us caused my breath to suspend for a second or two.

  “Yep,” he said. “I flew my jet all the way to Missouri because I just wanted to have sex with you one more time.”

  I couldn’t tell if he was joking. His voice was so monotone, his face blank and his body so still. I couldn’t read him sometimes, though I felt like it was intentional on his part.

  “I missed that mouth too,” he added. “I realized how quiet my life was after you flew home last weekend. Decided I had to do something about it.”

  “Oh, yeah?” my heart raced, galloping like a runaway horse. “Funny you say that. When I came home, I realized how boring my life here is. I figured I needed to do something about it. I planned on quitting my job tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow?”

  “I have to finish out the school year, but as of May 31st, I’ll be free,” I said. “Free from this town. Free from my past. Free to live the life I was meant to live.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know.” I smiled, recalling our five days together. “I had a lot of fun in New York. Thought about going back there. Start a life somewhere new. A life nothing like the one I have here.”

  He drew in a slow breath, his hooded eyes studying me as he seemed to be deep in thought. “I support your decision a hundred percent.” His full lips spread into a wide smile. “Not that you need my support. I’m just saying. If you were to move to New York, you already have a friend there. Someone to call if you need something. Anything.”

  Who’d have thought the handsome stranger at the bar a couple weeks ago would end up becoming my friend. I forced a smile, though deep down I wished we were more than friends. Those things took time, though, I knew that.

  “What do you see when you look at me?” I asked. “Do you just think of me as a friend?”

  “I hardly know you,” he said, “for starters, but yes. I consider you a friend.”

  My lips pursed at the corner of my mouth. I traced my hand along the messed up bed sheets. “Believe it or not, I think you know me better than most people in my life do.”

  “I believe it.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean.”

  “You don’t let a lot of people in, Mouthy. I can tell that much. You’re tough on the outside,” he said. “People like you. Like me. Like us. We’re tough on the outside because we’re soft in here.” His finger landed on my chest.

  I placed my hand over his. “You’re right. And all these years, I thought I was just a bitch.”

  “A bitch? Never. Sassy and opinionated and smart-mouthed, yes. You’re not a bitch,” he laughed. His face turned a shade of serious. “I’d have never come back for you if you were a bitch. You’re quite the opposite, Maisie. You’re special. You’re different. There’s something about you.”

  I lifted a single shoulder and shook my head shyly. “There’s nothing special about me, Sawyer. You don’t have to say that. I’m just an ordinary girl, living an ordinary life, wishing she were anyone else most days.”

  His brows formed a V as he frowned. “Don’t say that. Don’t talk like that.”

  He scooted closer to me, cupping my jaw in his hands and leaning in to kiss my tender lips with his.

  “You’re far from ordinary,” he said, his voice a sensual whisper. “You’re rare, Maisie. You’re authentic. You’re beautiful inside and out. You should be cherished.”

  “Really?” I kissed him back, craving his taste and yearning for him to whisper those magic words all over again.

  “If you were mine, I’d cherish you, Maisie,” he whispered. “Fuck any man who’s too stupid to have let you go.”

  I wanted to tell him I already was his, but my words were quieted with another delectable Sawyer kiss.

  ***

  “Come with me,” he said the next morning. “I’m going to Denver for a few days for an airline conference and some meetings. Come with me. I’d love to come home to this after a long day at work.” He squeezed my left ass cheek and buried his head in the crook of my neck.

  He’d just come out of the shower, and a white towel was the only thing between his naked, damp body and mine.

  “I want to,” I said. “Believe me, I do. I have work. It’s not like I can just call in sick for a few days. It’s not that easy for teachers.”

  He groaned, and disappointment coursed through me.

  “I have to fly out today,” he said. His hand cupped the side of my face before trailing down my neckline. “I don’t want to leave you here.”

  “I promise. I won’t go anywhere. I’ll be right where you left me. Waiting for you to come back.” I leaned in to taste him again, his lips minty fresh. The faint, clean scent of hotel soap permeated off his warm skin and evaporated into the air that surrounded us. I may have been just minutes from my apartment, but being in that hotel with Sawyer made me feel miles away from ordinary. We were in our own little world. “You’ll come back for me, right?”

  “I’d be a fool not to.” He peeled himself away from me and headed around the corner, emerging fully dressed.

  ***

  Sawyer flew to Denver that day, taking a piece of my heart with him. I longed for him. For his touch. His words. The way he looked at me as if I were the only girl in the whole entire world.

  I headed to the grocery store that night to pick up a few frozen dinners. Standing in the check out lane, the energy around me suddenly felt ripe; thick with tension. As the woman in front of me whipped out a hundred and twenty-seven different coupons and proceeded to argue with the checker when half of them wouldn’t work, I took a deep breath and tried to find something to pass the time. I scrolled through my phone, re-reading some text messages Sawyer had sent me that morning. I’d probably read them a thousand times that day, but each time still felt brand new.

  Smiling, I fired off a quick, “Miss you, Mr. Businessman” to him and slipped my phone back in my pocket. I still couldn’t shake the tense feeling in the air. Something was off, though I didn’t know what.

  I turned around to grab a magazine to bide my time, only to be faced with the one and only Sara Foster. My stepsister. The backstabbing bitch. Traitor extraordinaire. Our eyes met for only a moment until she looked away.

  “Hi, Sara,” I said. I wasn’t going to pretend like we didn’t see each other. Plus it was kind of fun watching her squirm. She held a blue shopping basket in her arm and nervously switched it to her opposite arm, almost trying to shield it from my view.

  “Hi.” She forced a quick smile that lasted all of two seconds.

  I glanced down into her basket, catching the white and blue packaging of a home pregnancy test before she quickly covered it with a tabloid magazine. A zing of shock zapped my heart, settling up into my throat. It was one thing to know that she and Luke were screwing around behind my back, but it was another to be faced with the fact that she might be carrying his baby.

  Part of me wanted to say something. Acknowledge it. Have words with her. But it wasn’t the time nor the place. And as angry as I was with her, part
of me was sad for her. Someday her looks would fade. The newness and excitement of an illicit love affair would be a distant memory. And all she’d be left with would be a baby she never wanted and a few stretch marks scarring her perfect, tight figure.

  She could have Luke. She could have him forever if she wanted. He may have been the prize for a brief moment of her young, adult life, but he would forever be her punishment.

  Luke was a loser. They deserved each other.

  “Next,” the checker called out after the coupon lady pushed her overflowing cart toward the automatic doors. I hoisted my things onto the counter. “How are we doing this afternoon?”

  “I’m doing absolutely fantastic,” I replied with a huge smile. I meant it. I meant every word. “How about you?”

  “I’m doing great, ma’am,” she said as she scanned my items.

  I turned to look at Sara one last time, her eyes avoiding mine still, before paying and getting the hell out of there.

  It wasn’t until I reached my car, when I realized I’d be bumping into her much sooner than I’d hoped.

  “Maisie, wait!” she called after me.

  “What, Sara?” I couldn’t have hit the annoyance in my town if I’d tried.

  She ran-walked toward me, slightly out of breath once she’d arrived. The lettering on the pregnancy test shone straight through the translucent plastic bag in her hand.

  “I take it congratulations are in order?” I said with rampant sarcasm. Her eyes misted a little, though I couldn’t tell if it was because she was sorry for what she’d done or scared shitless to possibly be pregnant with Luke’s child. I jingled my keys in my hand. “I really need to get going.”

  “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry,” she said, her bottom lip trembling slightly. “I never meant for you to get hurt, and I never meant for it to go this far.”

  “Sara, really, you don’t have to say anything. I’m over it. I’ve moved on. I assure you.”

  “But how can you move on so fast? You were with him for, like, five years.”

  My mind flashed back to our high school days. Sara had a bit of a reputation for going after guys who were taken. She never came out and said it, but I think she liked the thrill and the chase and the challenge. She could have any guy she wanted, but those guys, the ones who were taken, were the hardest to get. I just never thought she’d go after my guy.

  “Luke’s an easy guy to walk away from I guess.” I shrugged unapologetically. “What’s that saying? One girl’s trash is another girl’s treasure?”

  My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out to reveal a text from Sawyer.

  “I have to get going,” I said, never taking my eyes off his message. “Good luck with…that.” I pointed to the pregnancy test in her bag before hopping back into my car.

  Perhaps most people would’ve been upset, but I couldn’t be. Luke and Sara deserved each other, and I had more important things to focus on. Like Sawyer. And moving. And living the life I was meant to live.

  In a twisted sort of way, everything happened exactly the way it was supposed to happen. I shuddered to think of living a life of unfulfilled mediocrity as Luke’s wife.

  FOUR

  Maisie

  “Hey,” I said as I called Sawyer a few nights later. We’d been having phone dates every night at the same time. I lay under the cold sheets of my bed. It was still hard getting used to sleeping alone, but it would only be temporary. Just a couple more months. “Did you have a nice flight?”

  “Always,” he said. “Just getting settled at the hotel for the night. I fly home tomorrow. You have Wi-Fi?”

  “Yes, why?”

  “I want to see you before I go to sleep.”

  A Face Time alert flashed on the screen of my phone, and I happily accepted. I wanted to see him too. It was dark where he was, but enough light filtered around him for me to see that he was still wearing his suit and tie get up. God, he was sexy as sin. I fluffed my hair and tilted my phone at a flattering angle, placing the best smoldering look I could muster on my tired face. “There. Happy now?”

  “Not entirely,” he said. “I mean, your face is quite beautiful and all, but I’m really missing the rest of you right now.”

  Heat flashed over me. I’d never done sexting or video sex or phone sex or anything of that nature. I was a bit old fashioned and maybe slightly naïve, save for sleeping with a stranger I met at a bar. I suppose the new me needed to be a little more adventurous and risk-taking anyway, especially if she were about to move across the country to be with this man in a couple months.

  “Fine,” I sighed, the corners of my lips curling into a smile. I sat the phone down and slipped off my top, unhooking my bra after that. Grabbing the phone, I angled it down my body, giving him a good, long look at me as my free hand massaged a pert nipple.

  “God,” he groaned, shoving his fist in his mouth. “I want you so bad right now. You have no idea.”

  I giggled. “Okay, I have papers to grade, Sawyer, so I’m letting you go. Get a good night’s rest. I’ll be thinking of you tonight.”

  I gave him a wink and ended the call. I could’ve stayed on the phone with him all night long, but I had work to do. And I didn’t want to seem desperate. I was quite sure women threw themselves at him 24/7 anyway, and if Sawyer said I was different from other women, I sure as hell wanted to keep it that way.

  No sooner did I set my phone down, did I receive a text from him.

  HOPE YOU ENJOY THE FLOWERS I SENT…

  A knock on the door a minute later, sent a grin across my face as I traipsed across the apartment. Pulling the door open, my heart leapt when I saw him standing there, bouquet of pink tulips in hand.

  “Are you serious?” I squealed, jumping up and down and practically throwing myself in his arms. “Had to make another emergency landing, did you?”

  He pressed me against the wall outside my apartment building, claiming my lips with his as his hands slid down my sides and stopped just above my hips. “If you consider an uncontrollable urge to see a very particular woman an emergency, then yes.”

  “Get in here.” I grabbed his navy silk tie and pulled him into my apartment, locking the door behind us. We stumbled onto the couch, where I pushed him down and fell to my knees.

  I had to have him. Fuck grading papers.

  I unzipped his bulging pants as he melted back into the sofa. “Fuck, Mouthy, look what you do to me.”

  Pulling out his rock hard, throbbing cock, I placed my mouth around it, a bead of pre-cum already waiting for me. Swirling my tongue around the tip, Sawyer’s fingers found my hair, gathering it into a ponytail in his hand as he guided my movements.

  Sawyer’s clean, masculine taste filled my mouth, and without warning, he pulled me up. “Stop, Mouthy. I want to cum inside that tight pussy of yours and not those fucking lips I love so much.”

  His hands slid my leggings and panties down, and I straddled him as he sheathed his wet, throbbing dick. Lowering myself onto him and aided by my intense arousal, it was all I could do not to lose it right then and there. Sawyer’s hands slid under my top, cupping my breasts beneath the demi cups of my lace bra.

  “Touch yourself,” he commanded. My right hand worked its way to my clit, rubbing it as I circled my hips.

  “I’m so glad you came back,” I whispered as I bounced and rocked on his veiny cock.

  “Me too,” he groaned. “Oh, god, you’re so fucking tight, Mouthy.”

  Leaning down, I tasted the salt and musk of his skin and drank in his clean aftershave. Being connected with him made me feel like a million bucks, like I truly mattered to someone. For a man to fly across the country, not once but twice, to be with me, meant more than he’d ever possibly know.

  “Come with me, Mouthy,” he said as his face twisted into a sexy half-smile. His hands left my breasts as he dug his fingers into my tangled mess of hair. “Don’t fight this. We’ve got all night. I’m not going anywhere…”

  We exploded
together, a mess of sexual tension and chaos that quickly dissipated in the air as soon as it’d arrived. I leaned onto him, burying my head on his shoulder and breathing him in once again, only this time it was mixed with the scent of our sex. Our own little brand I’d come to love.

  I kissed his neck, working my way up to his jaw and then traveling to his ear, where I nibbled the tender flesh of his ear lobe. Every few seconds, I could still feel him pumping inside me, as if his dick weren’t finished yet.

  “God, I missed that,” he said, displacing the hair from my eyes.

  I wasn’t sure what we were going to do. I was stuck in Missouri for another two months, and I didn’t want to lose an ounce of our sex-on-fire chemistry.

  “May 31st can’t come soon enough,” I whispered, nuzzling into his shoulder. “I can’t wait to get out of here. Start a new life.”

  “I can’t wait to take you out of here,” he said. “Give you the life you deserve. A life with me.”

  I peeled myself off his shoulder and looked into his dreamy gaze. His hand cupped the side of my cheek, and his thumb grazed my bottom lip, forcing a shiver down my spine.

  “I promise, Maisie,” he said, “that I will always cherish you. I’ll never fuck you over. I’ll never do to you what he did.”

  “You sure? Because people say a lot of things they don’t mean. It’s okay if you don’t want to promise me anything…we can just see how it goes and play everything by-”

  “-I’m positive,” he leaned in, “and I really need you to stop talking right now.”

  He gently pushed me off his lap and onto my back, climbing over top of me and quieting my words and thoughts with his hot mouth once again.

  EPILOGUE

  Sawyer

  One year later…

  I sat my keys down on the marble table in the foyer, next to the fresh flowers I’d had delivered earlier that week. Every Monday my florist dropped off an enormous bouquet of exotic blooms, something different each week, for my Maisie. Each arrangement arrived with a single sentence in French, fragments of a love letter that would all come together at the end of the year.